February 2011

February 11, 2011

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and pro golfer John Daly were at 7-under par for the tournament, tied for 82nd and 13 shots out of the lead, after two rounds of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in California.

Romo, a scratch golfer, and Daly opened with a 65 on Thursday but faded to 70 on Friday.

Bryce Molder and EMC executive Harry You hold the second-round lead at 20 under, and D.A. Points and actor-comedian Bill Murray are in a tie for third.

With all the free tickets being promised for next year's Super Bowl, Indianapolis needs to start on a temporary seating plan now.

Super Bowl XLV, the first Super Bowl hosted by the Dallas Cowboys, now rivals Super Bowl V, the notorious Blooper Bowl when the Cowboys lost to the Colts to end the 1970 season, as the biggest Super Screw-up of all time.

Longtime Cowboys fans will remember the pain of watching the pratfall of the 1970 Cowboys, dressed unfortunately in blue jerseys, against a Colts team that was equally bumbling. This year's Super Bowl has left a feeling of embarrassment in Dallas-Fort Worth. The Cowboys of 1971 were able to erase the bad memory and win the next Super Bowl; Jerry Jones might not get another Super Bowl chance.

On Friday, the granddaughter of the first president of the Green Bay Packers franchise was supposed to be meeting in New York with NFL officials. According to an Associated Press report, Peggy Beisel-McIlwaine, 55, is one of the 400 Spartans, who found out their ticket went with a seat in a section deemed unsafe because guardrails hadn't been installed.

These 400 were put in holding pens, then herded and paraded around the stadium in search of seating, finally landing in a field suite behind the Steelers bench where they couldn't see the game.

In a letter sent to the NFL, which she provided to The Associated Press, Peggy Beisel-McIlwaine said Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones should never be allowed to host another Super Bowl. She called her experience at Cowboys Stadium a “total disaster.”

Beisel-McIlwaine’s grandfather was Andrew Blair Turnbull, the Packers’ first president and a member of the team’s Hall of Fame. Her father was Daniel C. Beisel, a Packers’ board member from 1968 until his death in 2009, according to The Associated Press.

On Thursday, the NFL said an additional 2,000 fans forced to sit in temporary seats will receive either a face-value ticket refund or a free ticket to a future Super Bowl.

February 09, 2011

Patriots strength and conditioning coach Mike Woicik is expected to return to the Cowboys in the same position he held in Dallas from 1990-96. Joe Juraszek, who has been the Cowboys’ strength and conditioning coach the past 14 seasons, missed the last half of the 2010 season on a medical leave of absence.

Woickik, whose contract with the Patriots expired after the 2010 season, arrived in Dallas with Jimmy Johnson. He was with the Cowboys for three Super Bowls and with the Patriots for three more.

The Cowboys are closing in on the completion of their staff. They made the hiring of defensive line coach Brian Baker official Wednesday.

The federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Dallas — just two days after the big game — alleges breach of contract, fraud and deceptive sales practices on behalf of people who ended up watching the game on TV at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, or had seats the lawsuit labeled "illegitimate."

The NFL had announced just hours before the Green Bay Packers played the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday that about 1,250 temporary seats were deemed unsafe, and the league scrambled to find new seats for about 850 people. The remaining 400 were forced to watch from standing-room locations around the stadium.

One plaintiff is a Steelers fan from Pennsylvania who was among the 400 with a ticket but no seat. The other is a Cowboys season ticket holder who claims many of Jones’ biggest-spending fans were stuck in metal folding chairs without a view of the stadium’s giant video board.

Spokesmen for the Cowboys and the NFL had no comment Wednesday.

Los Angeles-based attorney Michael J. Avenatti said he expects the suit to cover about 1,000 people.

"No one is attempting to get rich from this," he said. "People are merely interested in being compensated for what happened (at the stadium) and the cost that goes with that."

Avenatti said he’s a Cowboys season ticket holder who attended Sunday’s game. He said he wasn’t one of the fans affected by the seating issues but heard plenty of complaints.

"People at the game were disgusted, but it doesn’t take long to be disgusted with a situation like this," he said.

Avenatti said Steve Simms, the Steelers fan named in the lawsuit, was so put off by trying to watch the game from standing-room areas that he left at halftime.

Mike Dolabi, the Cowboys season ticket holder in the lawsuit who lists Tarrant County as his residence, is among a group called "Founders" who paid $100,000 per seat just for the right to buy tickets. Those so-called personal seat licenses resulted in more than $100 million in revenue for Jones, according to the lawsuit, which seeks $5 million in damages.

February 08, 2011

The NFL has added a second option for the roughly 400 fans who had to give up their seats at the SuperBowl: They can choose to attend any future SuperBowl instead of being limited to the 2012 game.

The league initially said Sunday it would give $2,400, three times the face value of the ticket, to the fans who were forced to watch the game on monitors or use standing-room platforms after some temporary seating sections were not completed in time.

On Monday, Commissioner Roger Goodell said those fans also would receive tickets to next year's SuperBowl.

Then on Tuesday, the NFL announced the fans could choose instead to receive a ticket to any future SuperBowl, including next year's, along with round-trip airfare and hotel accommodations. If fans choose that option, they will not get the $2,400. They can wait until after the conference championship games each season to see whether their favorite team reaches the SuperBowl.

"We had more time to think about how to create a broader range of options that would better recognize the deep emotional bond that fans have for their team," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello wrote in an e-mail Tuesday.

The Green Bay Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 on Sunday at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. When the temporary sections were not completed before the start of the game, about 850 fans were moved to other seats. But there was nowhere to put the remaining 400.

Some of the affected fans complained Sunday that the $2,400 didn't cover the price they paid for the seats, travel and hotels.

If fans choose the first option of next year's game plus the $2,400, the ticket is transferable, which means it can be sold on the secondary ticket market. It won't be transferable in the other option.

The league said a senior NFL staff member would call each of the displaced fans to provide information about the options and answer questions.

"The commissioner thought it was the right thing to do to give those fans more options," Aiello said.

The NFL is working with the Packers, Steelers and Cowboys to track down all the affected fans. Contact information can be e-mailed to SBXLV(at)nfl.com.

February 05, 2011

Former Cowboys defensive end Charles Haley will have to wait a while longer. He and Dallas native Tim Brown, a former Raiders receiver, did not make the cut from 15 to 10 on Saturday in voting for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Jerome Bettis, Cris Carter and Chris Doleman were the other three former players who didn't make the first cut.

Both held their own at the poker tables, especially Davis who finished in the final five before bowing out.

Still neither were too thrilled about their situations _ playing poker while the Packers and Steelers were getting ready for Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys Stadium in Sunday.

Colombo said the Cowboys' 6-10 season still left a bitter taste in his mouth. He said the only positive about the week was rooting for former teammate Flozell Adams, who will play in the Super Bowl for the first time.

Adams spent 12 years with the Cowboys before being released after last season and signing with the Steelers.

"We are happy for Flo," Davis said. "We are going to be rooting for him."

Colombo said Adams was never really appreciated for his play with the Cowboys.

Colombo can also take a little pride in Adams success with the Steelers. After playing left tackle with the Cowboys, Adams moved to right tackle with the Steelers. When he made the swich, Adams called Colombo for some advice about playing the position.

The football talk, however, was small on this night as both came to help raise money for the Tackle Cancer Foundation, a charity started by former Dunbar star and NFL veteran Elijah Alexander, who died last year after battling multiple myeloma.

Alexander's wife Kimberly has picked up the torch for her husband, continuing to raise money and offer support for families of children battling cancer and myeloma.

Alexander has one more event during Super Bowl week. She will host a fashion show along with Cookie Johnson, the wife of Magic Johnson, at 11 a.m. Thursday at Nieman Marcus in Willowbend Mall. Johnson will showcase her "CJ" denim designs.